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“It is very simple to train a horse. You make him active
behind, from the activity behind you create flexibility on the
poll, when the horse is flexed on the poll, you do nothing
and the activity behind becomes engagement, and after
you have engagement, you make a half halt and you have
the horse collected and he is trained. Very simple! It is very
important to understand is that collection is not a stage that
your horse stays in – it is a stage where the horse can go in,
and come out, because if he stays in, and won’t come out, it is
not collection, it is squashed behind. What we see very often
in Grand Prix is horses jammed in front, by being jammed
in front the horse gets an engagement and the piaffer is
absolutely horizontal. But the judges are looking for how
many centimetres the horse comes off the ground with the
hind legs, and if the horse leans on his forehand, he comes
more off the ground. See, if I lean on my hands, it is easy for
me to lift my feet – it is the same with the horse.
You see horses like Valegro they do it in the right way,
and do it very well. It is not just Valegro, he is very good,
fantastic, he is very well trained, but there are lots of
horses that can be trained on the correct way. But it is much
quicker to jam the horse in front, and the horse, because he
is squashed behind, he comes up with his legs – but it is not
what I like.”
What about the great Dutch discovery that if you pull the
horse’s head down and in and behind the vertical, his back
would come up and he could move more...
“Like everything in life, it is partly true. No doubt, if you
arch his neck down without jamming, I don’t see anything
bad about that, and in the training, we make a lot of exercises
that I call round and down. I put the horse behind the vertical
and the horse arches his neck down, but he doesn’t shorten
his neck, and this creates engagement. When you put your
horse round and down, because he doesn’t want to fall on
his nose, instinctively balances himself, and then you feel
your contact is light, and his head is down, and his back is
working well. In the beginning, and always after a very good
collecting exercise, it is very good to have the horse round
and down because when he comes up in the collection, he
puts pressure on his loins, pressure on his back, to release
that pressure, put him down and round.”
“That is nothing to do with jamming the head back, it’s a
releasing and a stretching after the collection. You stretch the
horse, but you don’t force the horse into an outline and stay
on and on in that shape. Down and round is fundamental in
training the horse, but it must be done in the correct way –
when they are jammed, nothing, they don’t stretch, they are
squashed. You could see that with one horse that was very
fashionable, everything was jammed, squashed, very ugly, it
is against nature. You don’t even need to know about horses,
to know that when you look, you don’t like it.”
There are squashed horses but usually with riders who go
behind the vertical and drive their horses forward...
“The weight is so much in their hands, that if they did not
lean back they would be catapaulted off the horse. Pull back,
pull back, from the front end is just wrong. Okay there is
HANOVERIAN HORSE
SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA
HANOVERIAN STUD OF THE MONTH
Find us on Facebook
President: Janette Lewis
HHSA - Breed to Succeed
hanoverian@hanoverian.org.au
www.hanoverian.org.au
Prestide VDL won all three classes at Australia’s
premier dressage event, the Sydney CDI: Grand
Prix, Grand Prix Special and the Freestyle.
Prestige has been a star sire in Europe and the
United States, and now in Australia. Prestige VDL
stamps his progeny strongly, producing foals
with a good front, powerful gaits and correct
conformation. Horses that move uphill with a lot
of power from the hind leg, with a strong canter.
They are known for their willingness to work and
unrivalled temperament and character... horses
that have the mindset and talent to want to
compete at Grand Prix standard.
ASHWOOD PARK
EQUESTRIAN
Facebook/AshwoodParkEquestrian
Sheridyn Ashwood: 0416 262 055
ashwoodparkstud@optusnet.com.au